MessageLabs Reports Rise in Targeted E-Mail Attacks

MessageLabs reports that C-level execs are increasingly becoming the targets of cyber-thieves.

Cyber-thieves have set their sights on C-level executives with sophisticated social-engineering techniques designed to steal data, according to security researchers at MessageLabs.

In its monthly report, MessageLabs recorded a sudden spike in the number of targeted attacks June 26, intercepting some 500 attacks that used e-mails with Microsoft Word document attachments containing malicious code.

The surge, while unusual in its magnitude, follows an increase in the number of targeted attacks MessageLabs researchers have seen during the past few years, said Mark Sunner, chief security analyst for MessageLabs, in Gloucester, England.

"What we are dealing with here is data theft of the highest order," he said, adding that the document attachments in the e-mails contained Trojans that allow for remote code execution.

In the case of the blast of 500 e-mails June 26, the attacks were so precise that the name and job title of the recipient were included in the subject line. Roughly 30 percent of the e-mails targeted CIOs, while CEOs and presidents were targeted about 11 percent and 9 percent of the time, respectively.